Celebrating MM Serra's Legacy at the Film-Makers' Cooperative

The Film-Makers’ Cooperative/New American Cinema Group announces that MM Serra will be transitioning from her current role as Executive Director after over thirty years of dedicated service to the organization. During this transition period, the Board of Directors will continue the Coop’s daily operations in conjunction with its staff.

For the past thirty years, MM Serra has brought life to the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, the world’s largest archive and distributor of independent and avant-garde films. She oversaw the Cooperative’s certification as a nonprofit organization in 1993 and brought it into the digital age, working tirelessly to highlight the legacies of historically overlooked filmmakers. Serra has been instrumental in the restoration of countless films, including the works of Edward Owens, Maya Deren, Storm De Hirsch, Cathy Cook, and multiple collaborations with the Stan VanDerBeek Estate. She has successfully guided the Cooperative through four relocations and countless changes over the years. Without MM Serra, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative would not exist as it does today.

The Cooperative looks forward to continuing its collaboration with MM Serra in the future, and is hoping that she will carry on a curatorial position within the organization.

Jack Waters states, “MM Serra’s new curatorial role is a fantastic development in her building and sustaining the Film-Makers' Cooperative as a leading venue for distributing, presenting, and contextualizing Experimental/Avant Garde/Underground Cinema in the Twenty-First Century. I’m thrilled to know that in this capacity, combined with her increased focus on her magnificent and unique work as a film maker, that her contribution to Queer and Feminist cinema continues as one of the most relevant contributions to contemporary media."

Emily Singer, President of the Board of Directors, adds that, “MM Serra for many of us is not just a fabulous educator and artist, but a mentor and collaborator. Without her, many of us would never have had the opportunity to know the true joys of the Film-Makers' Cooperative and Experimental Cinema. I am eternally grateful for all MM has done for me personally, but also this community. I look forward to seeing MM’s next era of films and all the amazing projects we can expect in the near future.”

“When I first was walking with shaky paws in NYC,” Board Member Katherine Bauer writes, “Mary Magdalene Serra captured me with her sparkling cat eyes into the world of blood rushing films. She instilled in me the enduring principles of the Film-Makers' Cooperative; a dedication to generating community and support, by artists for artists of all kinds, whose films are not easily categorized. Her passionate desires to dig up and into the unusual and unseen has kept the archives a unique and important resource available to the world. The FMC will forever be nurtured by these solid roots.”

In the words of Peter Cramer, “MM Serra is a fascinating filmmaker who pushes against constraints and convention to reflect her unique focus on unusual subjects along with a wealth of knowledge and experience as curator since we first met in the early '80s. She has helmed the Film-Makers' Cooperative with devotion and care to both the organization and the filmmakers represented there. I am grateful to MM for her friendship and film legacy. May we all continue to benefit from her example and efforts.”

We are thrilled to announce that MM Serra will be embarking on an Emily Harvey Foundation artist residency in Venice this April. A brilliant filmmaker in her own right, Serra has created over 31 films that have screened at international festivals and venues. She has won numerous grants and awards, including a 2016 grant from the New York Council for the Arts and New York Foundation for the Arts and two Kathy Acker Lifetime Achievement Awards. Her writings have appeared in Framework Journal, Millennium Film Journal, and other publications.

The Cooperative will continue to honor her legacy with a fundraiser and benefit event taking place this Fall 2023—details to follow.